In 1862, the Olivia Barrington, a sturdy whaling vessel with an able crew, sails directly over the spot where a meteorite had fallen into the Atlantic Ocean centuries earlier. The crew slowly becomes aware of a terrifying alien presence, transported by the meteorite across galaxies and who occasionally emerge from their blue, gelatinous dimension to feed on them. Meanwhile in 1988, two small town Connecticut radio show hosts investigate paranormal events on the small island in the middle of nearby Dead Water Lake. They begin to uncover links between the lake and the fate of the whaling ship more than a century before.